The Foreign Service Journal, June 2003

regarding the threats directed at us. This distinct change in the U.S. national character, stimulated by 9/11, is one that foreigners, expatriate Americans or government officials long stationed overseas may appreci- ate intellectually but not viscerally. Alternatively, they would not be the first FSOs to have succumbed to “localitis” and come to accept as veri- ties the plaints of those who have their own, rather than our, interests in their minds and mouths. In pass- ing, one also recalls the OAS denun- ciations when U.S. action removed Noriega from power in Panama; it has been a long time since any of these states has petitioned for his return. Although we would have pre- ferred it otherwise, significant num- bers of states opposed our objective of eliminating Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. Some opposed us because their preference was indeed for Saddam Hussein and his regime. Others simply opposed our objec- 16 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U N E 2 0 0 3 S P E A K I N G O U T Ultimately, there is a certain arrogance to dissent. It goes beyond the dissenters’ mindset that senior officials can listen to, evaluate, and then reject their conclusions.